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For India's first solar observatory, 2026 is expected to be like no other.

This marks the initial occasion the observatory – that entered into space last year – can watch the Sun when it reaches its maximum activity cycle.

As per scientific data, it comes approximately every 11 years when the Sun's polarity reverses – the Earth equivalent could be the North and South poles changing places.

This period of great turbulence. It sees our star transition from calm to stormy and features a huge increase in the number of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of fire that erupt from the solar corona.

Made up of ionized particles, a CME can weigh up to a trillion kilograms and reach velocities of up to 3,000km each second. It can head out toward various directions, even toward the Earth. At top speed, it would take an ejection about half a day to cover the vast distance between Earth and the Sun.

"In the normal or quiet periods, our star launches two to three CMEs daily," explains a leading scientist. "Next year, we expect them to be 10 or more daily."

Researching CMEs is one of the most important scientific objectives of India's first solar observatory. One, because the ejections provide an opportunity to study the Sun at the centre of our solar system, and two, because activities that take place on the solar surface threaten infrastructure on Earth and in orbit.

Effects on Our Planet and Space Infrastructure

CMEs seldom present immediate danger to people, but they do affect our planet through generating geomagnetic storms that impact conditions in near space, where nearly thousands of spacecraft, comprising many from India, orbit.

"The most spectacular manifestations from solar eruptions include northern lights, being direct evidence that solar particles from Sun are travelling to Earth," the scientist explains.

"But they can also make all the electronics aboard spacecraft malfunction, disable power grids and affect meteorological and telecom spacecraft."

Past Solar Incidents

• The most powerful solar storm ever recorded occurred during the Carrington Event that disabled telegraph lines worldwide
• During 1989, a part of Quebec's power grid was knocked out, leaving six million people without power for hours
• During late 2015, solar activity disrupted air traffic control, causing chaos in Sweden and some other European airports
• Recently in 2022, a CME had led to dozens of spacecraft being lost

With capability to see events in the solar atmosphere and detect solar activity or solar eruption in real time, record its temperature at the source and track its trajectory, it can work as advanced warning to shut down electrical systems and satellites and move them to safety.

The Mission's Special Capability

While other solar missions observing our star, India's spacecraft has an advantage compared to rivals regarding watching the corona.

"The instrument has perfect dimensions enabling it to nearly mimic lunar coverage, fully covering the Sun's photosphere and allowing it continuous observation of almost all of the corona around the clock, throughout the year, including during solar events," notes the expert.

In other words, this instrument acts like an artificial Moon, obscuring the Sun's bright surface allowing researchers continuously observe the dim solar atmosphere – a feat natural eclipses does only during specific moments.

Additionally, this is the only mission capable of examining solar events using optical wavelengths, enabling it to determine eruption heat and thermal output – key clues that show how strong a CME would be if it headed our direction.

Readiness for Peak Period

To prepare for next year's solar maximum, researchers collaborated analyzing information gathered from a major solar eruption recorded by the mission has observed recently.

This event began on 13 September 2024 at 00:30 GMT. Its mass totaled billions of tons – for comparison that struck the ship was 1.5 million tonnes.

At origin, the heat reached extreme levels and the energy content was equivalent to millions of tons of explosives – relative to nuclear weapons used in Japan were 15 kilotons in scale respectively.

Even though the numbers make it sound incredibly large, the scientist classifies it as a "medium-sized" one.

The asteroid which wiped out the dinosaurs on our planet carried enormous energy and during solar peak occurs, we could see eruptions with energy content matching even more than that.

"In my view the CME we analyzed happened when the Sun was in the normal activity phase. This establishes the standard that we'll be using to evaluate what is in store during solar maximum occurs," he states.

"The insights from this will assist in developing protective measures to implement safeguarding spacecraft in orbit. They will also help us gain a better understanding of near-Earth space," he concludes.